The Indian National Congress is India's oldest party, having been in existence even before the Republic of India was formed. For several decades after Independence too, the party had been at the helm of the country's affairs.
Recent polls however have come as a major blow to the party. In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls the party suffered its worst defeat till then, with the UPA led by the Congress won a mere 59 seats. The general elections last year too were disappointing for the Congress which won 52 seats while the UPA as a whole secured 91 seats.
But are there fractures within the ranks of the party?
While reports have been vehemently rubbished, things don't quite add up.
The resort politics currently underway in Rajasthan also seem to indicate that all is not well. As The Free Press Journal's Sangeeta Pranvendra wrote recently, not all ministers and MLAs have reached the resort. And senior legislator Bharat Singh, in a letter to state in-charge Avinash Pande had opined that the entire exercise was pointless.
But the focus of this article is squarely on Congress Spokesperson Sanjay Jha who has emerged a vocal critic of the way the Party had been operating in recent times. Put in a nutshell, Jha appears to believe that the party is headed towards "political obsolescence" if it continues to conduct itself in the same manner -- something that he calls "baffling" in an open letter to The Times of India. The party has, in recent years suffered two Lok Sabha poll defeats and has lost (or faced a reversal of government) in various states.
"I would like to call a spade a spade here and a shovel: there has been no serious effort to get the party up and running with any sense of urgency," he writes. As Jha put it in a recent tweet, the need of the hour was "an organisational renewal".
"Of course there is scattered good work being done, but that will not make us robust, dynamic and successful," he had written.
Note that Jha's comments do not seem to be along the lines of a prospective deserter. As he told HW News, he had spoken out “because I care for the Congress party, it’s because I am ideologically a Congressman".
A Mumbai Mirror article written by journalist Rasheed Kidwai opines that Jha is not alone, adding that party insiders suspect that he has the support of individuals such as Shashi Tharoor, Manish Tiwari, Sachin Pilot, Milind Deora and Sandeep Dixit. Others who might be supportive of Jha's efforts include Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Deepinder Hooda.
Kidwai incidentally has written a book called "Sonia, A Biography" as well as a book based on the Party headquarters called "24, Akbar Road".
Now, we cannot emphasise enough that this is conjecture at present. There is no official document that has claimed this.
Nonetheless, if one looks at the situation in various parts of the country, and over the recent months, many of these individuals have clashed with other senior members of the party. To give a few examples, there have been murmurs about dissent between Sachin Pilot and Ashok Gehlot in Rajasthan. When Milind Deora shared a "lesser known and welcome fact" about the Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government, he was schooled by Ajay Maken. The latter said that if Deora wanted to leave the Congress, "please do", before propagating "half baked facts".
The Mumbai Mirror report suggests that matters may be coming to a head soon. While it is not clear whether this culmination would mean an attempt to challenge the Gandhi family for it's post as the AICC chief, or become a bargaining chip, reportedly, there may be a 'showdown' coming in October.
